Description

Soundy Audio Playlist allows any page or post to play and display an audio playlist.

This Soundy plugin can be used like its Soundy brother, Soundy Background Music, to have pages or posts playing an audio playlist in the background instead of a single soundtrack. However, this plugin can do much more than this: by means of the [sdy_pl playlist] short code, the playlist can be displayed anywhere in the page content. The page visitors can then interact with this playlist and control their audio playback experience with the following user interface features:

Front-End Features

Play/Pause button

Audio volume control slider

Soundtrack time positioning slider

Next and Previous buttons

Current soundtrack title and artist displayed in playlist header

Picture can be easily embedded by administrator and authors in playlist header

Arrow keys soundtrack selection

Mouse click soundtrack selection

Mouse double-click Play/Pause

Display of title, artist and composer of current playing soundtrack

Soundtrack Download if author allows it

Audio-Player is responsive

Tools in plugin settings to make Play/Pause button and header picture responsive

List of soundtracks can be made scrollable and height of scrolling area can be set in the plugin metabox on a per page/post basis.

In the FREE version of the plugin, the administrator can set up and maintain an audio playlist which can then be played and displayed by any page or post.

In the PRO version of the plugin, each page or post can have its own playlist set up and maintained by its author.

The soundtracks are played by means of the HTML 5 audio tag. This way, the plugin is compatible with all modern user devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops of all vendors).

An author can have the playlist played by his page without displaying the playlist. He can have the Play/Pause button inserted or not. Or he can have the playlist displayed with its full user interface.

Defaults can be set by the administrator in the settings page of the plugin.

Specific post and page plugin settings can be configured by the authors in the Edit Page and Edit Post pages.

In the plugin settings page, an audio playlist can be set per default.

The audio tracks can be anywhere on the web as they are specified with their URLs. They can also be uploaded in the media library of the WP site.

A play and pause button image can be uploaded by the administrator to replace the default one and can be positioned anywhere.

This Play/Pause button can be positioned in a corner of the document or in a corner of the window. It can also be positioned with a template tag typically in the document header or with a short code in the content.

Back-End Features

Playlist Designer: web module in the plugin settings page to help the administrator design the playlist display and have it fit his website design.

Playlist appearance can also be controlled with CSS additionally to playlist designer.

Playlist Column Customization: order, show/hide, width in percent or pixels can be conveniently set by the administrator and the authors.

Play/Pause Button Designer: web module in the plugin settings page to help the administrator design the Play/Pause button and have it fit his website design.

Administrator can choose to upload his own Play/Pause button images instead of using the Play/Pause button designer.

Play/Pause button can be positioned in any corner of the browser window or the page. Scrolling of the button with the content can be controlled.

Play/Pause button can also be inserted with short code or template tag.

A picture can easily be embedded in playlist header by administrators as well as authors.

Multi-language column headings. Webmaster can define in plugin settings language codes and associate them with column headings in any language.

Playing Options can be set by authors like random or sequential playing, autoplay, audio repeat loop, etc.

Short Codes can be used by authors to insert User Interface elements like Volume Slider Control, Time Slider Control, Previous/Next button, etc.

Last but not least, the [sdy_pl playlist] short code can be used by authors to embed and display the playlist with full audio user interface in the middle of the page content.

The playlist can also be played by a page with different playing options without being inserted with the playlist short code.

Docs & Support

You can find Tutorial, FAQ, Examples and more detailed information about Soundy Audio Playlist plugin on WebArtisan.ch. If you were unable to find the answer to your question on the FAQ or in any of the documentation, you should check Soundy’s Support Forum on WordPress.org. If you can’t locate any topics that pertain to your particular issue, post a new topic for it.

Installation

In the Admin area (the back-end) of your WordPress Web Site, go to Plugins > Add New.

Enter Soundy in the search field.

Soundy Audio Playlist appears.

Click on “Install Now”.

Click on “Activate Plugin”.

Go to Settings > Soundy Audio Playlist.

If you rapidly need a test playlist to experiment the plugin, click on the “Test” button and then on the “Save Changes” button.

Go into the Edit Page or Edit Post tool of any page in the Admin area.

Set the option Enable Soundy Playlist to Yes in the General tab of the Soundy Audio Playlist meta box.

Set the option Autoplay to Yes in the Play Options tab of the Soundy Audio Playlist meta box.

Update the page.

The page will then play the default playlist when displayed.

To have the playlist displayed in the content, insert the [sdy_pl playlist] short code anywhere in the content of this page.

To set up plugin defaults, go to Settings > Soundy Audio Playlist in the admin area and fill out the input fields.

Happy Soundy Music !

Updates

After an update of Soundy Audio Playlist plugin you must clear the cache of your browser for the Settings > Soundy Audio Playlist page as well as the Edit Post and Edit Page pages. This is because cached Javascript and CSS files are modified at each Soundy update.

FAQ

Installation Instructions

In the Admin area (the back-end) of your WordPress Web Site, go to Plugins > Add New.

Enter Soundy in the search field.

Soundy Audio Playlist appears.

Click on “Install Now”.

Click on “Activate Plugin”.

Go to Settings > Soundy Audio Playlist.

If you rapidly need a test playlist to experiment the plugin, click on the “Test” button and then on the “Save Changes” button.

Go into the Edit Page or Edit Post tool of any page in the Admin area.

Set the option Enable Soundy Playlist to Yes in the General tab of the Soundy Audio Playlist meta box.

Set the option Autoplay to Yes in the Play Options tab of the Soundy Audio Playlist meta box.

Update the page.

The page will then play the default playlist when displayed.

To have the playlist displayed in the content, insert the [sdy_pl playlist] short code anywhere in the content of this page.

To set up plugin defaults, go to Settings > Soundy Audio Playlist in the admin area and fill out the input fields.

Updates

After an update of Soundy Audio Playlist plugin you must clear the cache of your browser for the Settings > Soundy Audio Playlist page as well as the Edit Post and Edit Page pages. This is because cached Javascript and CSS files are modified at each Soundy update.

General Questions

Is it possible to have different playlists for different posts and pages ?
Yes, the PRO version of the plugin allows authors to set up and maintain playlists on a per post or per page basis.

What kind of audio files can be used with Soundy Plugin ?
The audio files must be in the format MP3, OGG or WAV.

Is Soundy Plugin compatible with iphone, ipad and smartphones in general ?
Yes it is, as the plugin uses the HTML5 audio tag. There is just one issue with ipod, iphone and ipad (IOS Operating System): Autoplay option is deactivated by Apple on this operating system.

Is it possible to position the Play/Pause button anywhere in the page or post header ?
Yes, this can be done with the sdy_pl_button_play_pause() template tag.

Is it possible to position the Play/Pause button anywhere in the content of a page or post ?
Yes, this can be done with the [sdy_pl button_play_pause] shortcode.

Is it possible to adapt the Playlist look & feel to my website ?
Yes, you can use Soundy’s Playlist Designer as well as CSS to customize the appearance of the playlists.

Is it possible to modify the Play/Pause button look & feel ?
Yes, you can upload and set up your own button images or you can use Soundy’s Play/Pause Button Designer.

Can I really put my audio files anywhere on the web ?
Yes, you can put your audio files anywhere on any cloud or website, except one place: you should not put your audio files in the soundy-audio-playlist plugin directory (or below). If you do, you will loose your files the next time you will install a new version of Soundy. The update process deletes this folder and replaces it with a new one. If you want to store the audio files on your WordPress site, the best place to do so is the media library (/wp-content/uploads/…).

Support Questions

After an update of Soundy, my soundtracks are not played anymore and my custom Play/Pause button images are broken. What happened ?
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the reason might be that you had uploaded your audio files and button images under the soundy-audio-playlist plugin directory. This directory is erased and replaced at each update. Do not add any file in it. Again, the prefered location for such files is the WordPress media library.

Is it advised to put my audio files on a separate storage cloud ?
Yes it is, especially if you have a lot of traffic on your website. Putting your audio files on a separate storage cloud will release the load on your website and improve page load response time in your visitor’s browsers. There is a lot of Cloud Storage Providers out there. Here is a list of such providers: Audio Hostings – free audio hosting sites. Your hosting provider might also offer cloud storage.

On WP front-end, Soundy’s Play/Pause button does not respond correctly. What’s the problem ?
Soundy needs jQuery 1.10.2 which is the default jQuery library of the last versions of WordPress. However some themes load their own jQuery library. If this library is not up-to-date, Soundy’s Play/Pause button gets into troubles.
Using WordPress Default jQuery library is actually what Soundy does and this is what your theme also should do instead of loading its own old jQuery version.

I get a PHP parsing error when activating the plugin. What’s the problem ?
Soundy needs PHP 5.3 or a higher version. If your PHP parser is not up-to-date, Soundy gets into troubles.
PHP 5.3.0 has been released in June 2009. Today’s version is 5.5.12. (sources: PHP Releases).

The handles of the volume slider and the time slider are vertically not correctly centered. What can I do to fix this ?
You can modify the value of the CSS variable margin-top of the CSS styles war_sdy_pl_playlist_volume_slider and war_sdy_pl_playlist_time_slider defined in the file plugin-dir/css/style-playlist.css on lines 222 and 290. The variable margin-top accepts negative values.

Tutorial

Playlist Tab
In this tab you can control the content of the site default playlist.
You can:

Add a new soundtrack to the playlist

Modify any soundtrack

Delete any soundtrack

Clear all soundtracks from the list

Import all audio files from the WordPress Media library

Set the list with Soundy's test playlist to test the plugin

Undo the last modification of the list

Columns Tab

In this tab you can control the display of the columns of the playlists inserted in pages or posts with the [sdy_pl playlist] short code.

You can control the order of the columns by dragging and dropping the column names in the Column Order section.

In the Column Layout section, you can select the columns to display and set their width.

The Preview section shows how the playlist and its columns will appear in pages but without the playlist header.

Playlist Designer Tab

In this tab you can control the appearance of the playlists inserted in pages or posts with the [sdy_pl playlist] short code.

You can control, the background colors, the text colors, the corner rounding and the spacing.

Playlist CSS

In this tab you can control how CSS is used to shape playlists inserted with the [sdy_pl playlist] short code.

To customize the appearance of your playlists, copy the file plugins/soundy-audio-playlist/css/style-playlist.css to any location and
specify the URL of this location in the CSS File URL field.

You can then edit and modify this copy.

You should not modify the file plugins/soundy-audio-playlist/css/style-playlist.css because,
if you do it, at the next update of the plugin, you will loose your modifications.

You can choose to use only CSS to customize the look of your playlists or CSS and the Playlist Designer.

Buttons Tab

In this tab you can upload your own play/pause button images.

Four images can be uploaded as Play and Pause buttons. The four default buttons are available in four sizes: 24x24px, 32x32px, 48x48px and 64x64px. To choose a size, just click on a button marked 48x48 or 24x24 or 32x32 or 64x64 at the bottom of the tab.

Play/Pause Button Designer Tab

In this tab you can design your own Play/Pause button so that it precisely fits your website design.

You can control:

the button background color

the play or pause symbol color

the outline color

the outline stroke width

the play or pause symbol size

the button size

the outline rounding (100% rounding = round button)

the outline rounding (100% rounding = round button)

the play or pause symbol rounding

Corner Position Tab

In this tab you can position the play/pause button in any corner of the page/post window or document.

In addition to having the play/pause button displayed as part of the playlists, it can also be positioned in any corner of the pages.

The get version of each template tag returns the element instead of inserting it.

When editing a page or post, a meta box called "Soundy Audio Playlist" appears below the text editor. This meta box can be activated or deactivated in the screen options of the edit page.

The meta box allows to override the default plugin settings for this page or post.

Soundy Audio Playlist Implementation Example

This playlist has been designed and adapted to this site's look & feel with the Playlist Designer. The Play/Pause button has been designed with the Play/Pause Button Designer, tools which are part of the free plugin. The playlist is inserted here with the [sdy_pl playlist] short code:

Support

License

This program is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2, as
published by the Free Software Foundation.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

Donate

If you are happy with the Soundy Audio Playlist plugin and you want to help us in further developments, we thank you in advance for a little donation of yours.

Click on the donate button below. A new window will open. Enter your donation amount and follow the instructions.